(Not) Your Average Zookeeper Jo
by The One Named MoonLight
Summary: (Title subjected to change)


**Yay! Another piece of writing that popped out from the blue and with no plans what so ever!**

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**Chapter 1: Y'ello**

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Wake up, survive work, and sleep. That was never-ending cycle of Alice Walker's life.

Don't get her wrong, Alice _loved_ her job . . . the only problem was the animals.

Who wouldn't hate them? She had to keep track of two —_wait, four_— overgrown and dangerous mammals, a house full of slimy reptiles and amphibians that secretly made her squirm (not that anyone will know _that_), flamingos, an otter, three monkey-squirrel things, and four penguins that couldn't seem to stay _put_! And that was just the animals she remembered! She had to make sure the water had the right chlorine tablets _every_ _**week**_ for the otter, fresh fish for the penguins _everyday_, peanuts for the elephants, bananas for the gorillas, various fruit for the . . . cats (?), whatever slimy reptiles ate . . . and the list went on.

Why couldn't being a zookeeper be so easy? When Alice was little, she loved animals! She had enough pets to open a pet store, where she worked at as a high-schooler. She even entered college with the dream of becoming a vet, but then her parents stopped paying her student fees ("financial problems" they claimed) and she had to drop out in the middle of her second term.

But hey, at least she had a bright side that she can't see.

Five o'clock in the evening was her daily little ray of hope. She grabbed the mic and started blaring in it, pushing this guy, throwing out that one, dragging out the guy taking notes at the otter's habitat. By five fifteen the zoo was clear save for the keepers.

Alice allowed herself a satisfied quirk of her lips, "Finally." She whispered, looking around the empty zoo. She had to admit, if she was a visitor, the place looked pretty relaxing when it was empty.

The elephant blared out and Alice's face fell into a half-lidded glare — and back came all the things not to look forward to.

She made her way to the lockers, not bothering to look at the cages and see if anything went wrong — if there was a problem, someone else could handle it now.

'_Wait, wait, stay still. Zookeeper Alice is still here!_'

'_Wasn't she supposed to leave, like, half an hour ago?_'

Alice stopped walking and swiveled around; the zoo was empty, no one was there, yup, completely empty. Just the otter's habitat and the flamingos. Still, Alice narrowed her eyes and looked around before shrugging and going back on her way — she's probably hearing things.

'Yo Alice' Guy (that's all she knew about him) was leaning on the wall near the men's bathroom and looking pretty bored. He gave a few, hard smacks to the door and groaned, "Yo, Joe, finish up in there."

"Gimme a mo', dude! I just went in!"

"An' I've been standin' here for more than 'a mo'." He noticed her pass him and called out, "Yo, Alice! You free tonight?"

Same ol' question, same ol' response. "No, I've got . . . stuff, Ken."

She heard him hurry after her, "Aw, c'mon, Al, you say that everyday. Even weekends."

"Still busy, Ben." Great, three more yards to the girl's lockers.

"I'm sure 'stuff' can wait." _Why won't you take a hint, frick?!_

Two yards, one and a half yards! Almost there! "No, they can't."

"Even for an ol' pal?"

Alice grabbed the handle of the door, "See ya, Jo." She snapped and slipped inside.

The room was empty as usual, as she was the last girl to get in. All the others (and by others, I mean Sam, Alex, and Monique) would scramble to change and leave as soon as possible. It was expected of them, they had _things_ she didn't to look forward to: friends, family, romance, a _future_.

She changed from the uniform to a pair of wide jeans and a hoodie, leaving her uniform in her locker, and washed her face in the bathroom. She looked at the mirror, taking a look at each side — okay, so she wasn't the prettiest for someone in their late twenties (she was never really pretty, to be honest) but red hair had to count, right? It reached down to a little over her waist, stringy and limp, with no sheen and no volume. But how many redheads were there in the world? Only a thousand or something; yeah, she was one of the gifted thousand in the world.

Alice stretched back, hearing it crack from too much slouching, and stepped out.

The sun was setting, giving a warm glow in the sky that slowly turned dark blue with no stars. The stars will never show in a city like New York, not unless a black out occurred. The zoo was completely void of any humans except for her. She allowed herself to stroll around not as Zookeeper Alice, just as Alice. Most of the animals were just lying about, some lazily watching her, some asleep, some eating the remains of their food. Alice watched them idly, leaning on the bars of one of the habitats, then froze.

'_. . . that lady can't take a hint, can she?_'

'_I know, it's like she wants to stay!_'

'_Impossible, Private. There's no way a person like __**Alice**__ would want to stay. Kowaski, analysis._'

'Based _on my observations, Skipper, we can safely say that Zookeeper Alice is lounging by us to find out all our secrets and tell the FBI_.'

She frowned; she knew she heard someone, no, _somebodies_ talking. Alice whizzed around, only to find the penguin habitat; three of the penguins stood still as statues, watching her with beady eyes. The zookeeper narrowed her eyes on them, then stormed out of the zoo.

She knew she heard someone sigh in relief as she locked the zoo gates.


End file.
